Halloween - Hippie Style! (or not)

How to drive your Mother crazy:

Have her scrimp and save, work 2 jobs and give up all hope at ever having a vacation/maid/desperately needed therapy so she can send you to the media-free, protection of childhood determined Hippie School. Then ignore all the creative thinking, media-freeness and request to be a *gasp* tv or movie character for Halloween. And explain that you DO want to go the school Halloween party. Could it be worse?

Well, really it was not so different last year. Julia asked to be this:

It involved a long search for black fur in a town sold out and made my sewing room look like a cat exploded, but it was not too hard to make and a perfectly Waldorf acceptable choice. Julia's 2 friends showed up at school as Laura and Mary Ingalls and Julia got to be their cat "Black Susan" (re-read Little House in the Big Woods for the reference).

Maisie asked to be a turtle. How does one make a turtle costume? This is the best I could figure out:

And then there's Tate. Little Mr. WalMart special. No one said anything at school, but we got some good looks. It made me laugh, I felt like I needed a sign "my tuition = money wasted". Or a Mastercard commercial:

Cheap-ass Walmart costume - $20

Face paint set: $10

Tuition to ultra media un-friendly school: $15,000

Showing up at the school Halloween party as Spiderman: PRICELESS

So this year the kids had until Oct 1st to decide what they wanted to be. There would be no frantic searches for the last scraps of black fur or frustration trying to last minute a turtle costume. There was a lot of discussion and mind changing but the decision is now made. Julia wants to match her bff who is going to be Dorothy. Julia originally wanted to be Toto, but switched to Glinda the Good Witch when I started twitching at the thought of buying more fur. She's a smart girl. Here's the start of her costume. Ebay search for "pink pageant dress":

I'll have to trick it out with some silver sparkly skirt bling and make a crown and scepter. I can handle that. Not too complicated. So far, so good.

Tate wants to, again, be a cheap WalMart costume character. Fine. Meet Anakin Skywalker:

Tate did not understand why Maisie and I were rolling on the floor giggling hysterically at him. That mask is so ridiculously real, it's a trip. And Tate's voice coming out of Anakin's face is something else. "Hey Mom, I can't pick my nose when I'm in a mask!"

And Maisie? I'll give you a hint - this is what we bought today:

Any ideas? Okay, another hint. She didn't want Tate to "be alone" and decided against being a baby (thank goodness - I did not want to try to sew footed baby pjs. I know I could buy them in her size, but then they'd be flame retardant. Or as one of the famous crazy Gymboree customers told Sarah: "they're poisonous!"). No idea?

Here ya go:

R2D2 or Roo2D2 since it's to be Maisie, the Rooster's, costume. I think (knock wood) I can pull off a decent costume with paint, foil, cardboard and a little luck (also known as "google"). Will we go to the school party dressed in our media-centric finery? Will we wilt under the pressure to conform? Maybe. Maybe not. I'll let you know. And we'll have fun regardless.